In a typical health care location, patients require continuous monitoring in order to attend to a medical emergency occurring with a patient. Remote patient monitoring systems enable efficient usage of time and resources of a medical agent such as a nurse, doctor and other medical personnel to attend to the patient experiencing the medical emergency. Existing remote patient monitoring systems include diagnostic monitoring devices such as medical sensors for measuring at least one physiological parameter such as ECG, blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation level, glucose level and the like. A medical event such as a medical emergency is detected by the remote patient monitoring systems, when a measured physiological parameter exceeds predetermined limits, the measured physiological parameter being of a discrete nature. Alternatively, the medical event is detected for a measured physiological parameter of continuous nature when the measured physiological parameter fails to match a preconfigured pattern. However, for the purpose of detecting the medical event, it is essential that the medical sensors be associated with at least one demographic detail of the patient. Instances of demographic details include name, age, gender, bed location and the like so that when the medical event is detected the medical agent may easily locate and identify the patient.
Attaching of the medical sensors and associating each of the medical sensors with the demographic details of the patient tends to consume critical time and requires the patient to be in his full state of consciousness, in order to provide necessary personal data. In another instance, where the health care location has to attend to numerous patients that are inflicted by a major disaster it may be impossible to provide individual bed locations to each patient. As a result, it may not be possible to attach the demographic details of the patient with the medical sensors in a situation where the patient needs immediate medical attention, is unable to provide the necessary personal data, or when the patient does not have a fixed location. Further, it could be inconvenient to associate the demographic details of the patient owing to the patient's health condition, privacy and security.
Secondly, even though existing building location technologies provide accurate identification of a person whose demographic details are unknown, the cost of installing such location technologies in the medical sensors are aforementioned are high. In lieu of the high expenditure involved in employing the existing building technologies with the medical sensors and peripheral monitoring hardware, an inexpensive method for identifying the patient attached with the medical sensors is desired.
Hence there is a need for a method and system that can remotely monitor the patient without associating the demographic detail of the patient with the medical sensors. Additionally, a method and system that can ensure effecting monitoring of the patient the moment the medical sensor is attached to the patient is desired.